Sorcerer (Class Guide)
Alright I really don't want to do this but no one else has (/cough Hartlis) but here is the inside scoop on the all powerful sorcerer. All information will be for a level 50 sorcerer, some abilities won't be available to you until you reach this level. Buffs Self Buffs: You may only have one barrier up at a time, all of them have their uses, but fire barrier is the preferred one to use during a raid Force Barrier ~ adds armor class and puts up a shield that absorbs one hit and stuns your opponent every 30 seconds Chromatic Barrier ~ adds to all resists and reflects one incoming spell every 30 seconds Fire Barrier ~ 20% spell haste, energy regeneration increase and a chance to feed 360 energy back to you on proc Summoned Focus ~ there are 5 different focuses by the time you get to level 50, each does a unique thing. The most commonly used one in a raid is the Quicksilver Focus which grants the user Intelligence, Wisdom, and 25% Spell Refresh Rate and Movement Speed. The others do things like water breathing and levitate Group Buffs: Arcane Mantle ~ 270 resist to arcane damage Elemental Mantle ~ 100 resist to fire and ice damage Seradon's Vision ~ 30 to spell identification Chromatic Halo ~ (learned in RI) 6 different buffs, each reflects one kind of incoming spell, i.e. fire, ice, arcane, etc. Mirror Ward ~ reflects one spell back at your enemy Nulling Ward ~ disperses one incoming spell Invisibility and See Invisibility ~ self-explanatory Sanctuary ~ there are six shield that can be cast on a defensive target to grant them immunity to one type of incoming damage for 15 seconds Note: The Halo and Wards will only work on your group, the others can be cast on anyone. Dots Char ~ fire damage plus more fire damage Blinding Fire ~ fire damage and a chance to stun, plus more fire damage Flame Spear ~ fire damage that is increased the farther you are away from target Chain and Counter's Incinerate ~ burns a target over time, upon successful hit Inidriaâ€™s Inferno will activate and burn the target more. Cold Wave ~ Freezeâ€™s everything in a 15 meter cone and slows there movement speed, upon successful hit Inidriaâ€™s Frigid Blast will activate and add to the damage. Mimic ~ Repeats the success of the critical hit of the previous spell and stacks with the damage of that spell. Disperse ~ dissolves an incoming spell Reflect ~ reflects an incoming spell; be careful not to reflect a heal or beneficial spell Direct Damage Freeze ~ cold damage and roots your target for 6 seconds Frostbite ~ cold damage and slows movement speed of your target by 70% for 14 seconds Taqmir Barrage ~ arcane Damage with a chance to restore some energy Shocking Grasp ~ arcane Damage from a melee damage range with a chance to restore some energy Seradon's Falling Star ~ cold damage with a chance to root target, this is a large direct damage spell used best with the combination of the amplifies Chaos Volley ~ arcane damage at its finest. This spell is the meat and potatoes for a sorcerer. It grows stronger and stronger the more times you cast it in a row. The feedback restores some energy but also damages the caster. It is a good idea not to ramp up this spell unless you have arcane resist very high along with arcane absorb gear on. Other useful spells Color Spray ~ Short lasted mesmerize, used rarely but helpful in a â€œholy crapâ€ situation Sleep ~ puts your target to sleep for 40 seconds; only one target can be slept at the same time Disenchant ~ strips enchantment from target Forget ~ the most important spell for DPS, clears 15% of the hate built up on target Gather energy ~ absorbs the energy around you to rebuild your energy pool from your endurance Energy Crystals ~ a summoned crystal that holds a 120% of the energy you have, when clicked it will fill your energy pool to full plus some Plan of attack Sorcerers are a straight damage per second class, they can be used a little in crowd control but their high damage output makes it more appropriate to use them in the fight to take down the mob. During raids it is vital to wait for an assist to be called, and probably wait an additional 5 seconds or so before you rain down on the mob. Start with an amplified falling star and any chains that follow. Hit the mob with a few dots like char and blinding fire. After using a forget then start on the chaos volleys. Build the chaos volleys to full but keep an eye on your health. Use mimic in combination with chaos volley to maintain the increase in damage. You can sneak in a char in between casts to increase your damage output. When chaos volley burns out the refresh timer will extend. This will be where you start the cycle over again. It is important to use forget on a consistent basis because the damage you will do will pull agro from the tank in a very short time. Learn the mob and know your role, fortunately most of the time for a sorcerer it is just to nuke the mob until it is dead. Good luck and good nuking, keep the nukes coming until the mob hits the ground and you will do well. Latest Update With the new updates the chaos volley has changed and is no longer a button massing device. It does now however boost the spell damage of the entire group for 20 seconds and still hits pretty hard. They lowered cast cost of Falling Star and the refresh timer also. I personnally now, start off with a chaos volley and then an amped up Falling star. This is followed by char which I keep up everytime it falls. I pump a few chaos volley and hit Falling Star every time it is up. This rotation is only messed up if I have to disenchant something or if the target heals to cold, then I sub in Flame Spear. (Shiver gets hit for between 50k and 80k with an amped up Flame Spear, so it is a suitable replacement.) Good luck! Last edited by Rasmanis on Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total. Posted by Hartliss on July 2, 2008: A small comment on V's tactics for raid here. First, if you don't want to die right away (as V does), do not start your attacks with an amplified Falling Star. You are guaranteed a massive crit, massive agro and death soon after. This can cause a possible wipe, as well, due to the fact that if healers are chain healing, there agro will possibly put them second on the hate list. We all know it is the responsibility of the main tank to gain agro and keep it, but it is the responsibility of the Sorcerer to NOT get agro at all. If you want to live through the fight (as Hartlis does) start by using Blinding Fire, Char, then a few Chaos Volleys and any chains that may follow these. Once the main tank has clearly established agro (mob is below 80% health approx.), then it is safe to start using an amplified Falling Star and chains that follow. Avoid agro at all costs, you don't want to be second on the hate list. Some mobs have agro wipe, summon and/or bounce to random attackers. Use Forget (15% hate reduction) as often as it is up through the course of the fight. On a second note, another important role of the Sorcerer is their ability to Counter Spell. Intelligence is the main attribute that effects this ability. Get your counter spell skill to a base 500, then start adding gear to get the skill up to around 700 - 900. Countering the attacks and/or summoning of more mobs can be a crucial aspect against some named mobs. The third note, acquire as much energy regeneration gear as possible. It has been my experience that if there is any class that needs frequent energy boosts, it is healers. DPS classes do not need to be added to the list of needing energy as well. Vitality is the main attribute that will effect energy regeneration. Good luck... My mistake on the falling star thing, I always start out with that after an appropriate wait time from the call of assist, but after the chains and a few dots are in place I cast forget immediately and then every time it refreshes. I only dies when the tank does or something else weird happens. Since I have started to do this in serious fights my dps has gone up and my deaths have gone down. I truly feel that it won't hurt you to come in a little hard if you hold off for a short time first. Learning your tanks ability to hold aggro and how confident you are in there assist call will determine this completely. On that second note, I forgot about the importance of counterspelling in my game plan section, so thanks Hart. Category:Class Guides